US Immigration Authorities Use Mass Surveillance To Target Immigrants - Advocacy Group

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published March 13, 2019 | 09:18 PM

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are using mass location surveillance, including driver location data, to target immigrants, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) advocacy group said in a press release on Wednesday

NEW YORK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th March, 2019) US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are using mass location surveillance, including driver location data, to target immigrants, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) advocacy group said in a press release on Wednesday.

"US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using mass location surveillance to target immigrants. And local governments like Merced and Union City, California, are helping - feeding their residents' personal information to ICE, even when it violates local privacy laws or sanctuary policies," the release stated.

ICE has access to over 5 billion data points of location information through a company called Vigilant Solutions, which collects information from private businesses such as parking lots and insurance companies and runs an automated license plate reader database, the ACLU said.

Documents between ICE and Vigilant Solutions show that in 2017, the law enforcement agency finalized a $6.

1 million contract to gain access to the database through September 2020. In addition to containing over 5 billion records, the database reportedly will continue to add 150-200 million of unique license plate scans each month, according to ACLU, citing documents it obtained.

Over 9,000 ICE officers have gained access to the database, the ACLU said.

In addition, ICE can gain access to over 1.5 billion records collected by law enforcement agencies. Over 80 local law enforcement agencies from over a dozen of states have reportedly agreed to share people's license location information with ICE, according to the ACLU.

Local police sharing resident location information with ICE is against the law in California, the ACLU noted, urging state lawmakers to call for the state auditor to review compliance with relevant bills.